With hopes of doubling the original HandMade Films library of 23 features by the year 2000, Paragon chair and ceo Jon Slan says his company is still considering starting its own Canadian film distribution company. ‘We haven’t found a way to make money at it yet,’ he says, ‘but we’ve been looking at it for a while.’

There’s action on all fronts at Paragon of late. While anxiously awaiting the results of the u.k. film lottery next month, the company is in final negotiations with pbs for 40 episodes of Zaboomafoo, a new live-action/puppet kids’ show, and has codeveloped a feature with Universal worth an estimated $31 million. The feature – a sequel to Time Bandits – has a finished script and a director has been tentatively signed. The shoot would most likely happen in England.

Meanwhile, while the campy tv series Forever Knight dropped off Paragon’s books last year, Slan expects a new dramatic series from his company in the fall lineup for 1998. ‘Our primary interest now is in television series,’ says Slan.

By focusing more of the company’s resources on features, series and kids’ fare, Slan says Paragon will be doing less in the tv movie department, despite the success of recent one-offs like Kissinger and Nixon, Lives of Girls and Women and Frequent Flyer.

‘Our general strategy is to be in businesses where – if we’re successful – we can have hits. Features, you can have hits. Kids’ programs, you can have hits. tv series, you can have hits. But a tv movie takes a lot of time and effort and it has a limited upside. You just can’t make more than $1 million on a tv movie.’

Children’s fare has proven lucrative for Paragon. Lamb Chop’s Play-Along and the kids’ wildlife series Kratt’s Creatures – plus the new, tba Kratt brothers vehicle – make the company pbs’ largest supplier. Having increased its stake in Ottawa’s Lacewood Productions from 50% to 75% earlier this year, Paragon has gone public in saying it hopes the animation company will grow to rival the likes of Nelvana and Cinar.

With the help of some earmarked funds from Paragon’s recently completed special warrants sale – a venture that raised $9 million – Lacewood is working on its biggest slate ever. Matthew and the Midnight Adventures and Papyrus are both series projects, while Legends of the Land and The Teddy Bear Adventures are miniseries. All are in various stages of production and preproduction.

Paragon’s feature division, HandMade, is producing five new theatrical projects in the first half of 1997, bringing the total up to 11 features in 18 months. Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels begins production in London, Eng., this month, and Tod Mesitow’s Written In Water starts this month on the coast of North Carolina.

June brings Lotto Boy (directed by Tom Quinn), Another Life (directed by Philip Goodhew in England) and Life’s Companion (directed by Lyle Kessler in the u.s.).

On the development slate, says Slan, is a feature with David Steinberg (Mad About You). Steinberg directed Dave Foley and Jennifer Tilly in The Wrong Guy, a HandMade feature from last year.

At last month’s American Film Market, Disney’s indie distribution unit Miramax picked up u.s., u.k., Australian, New Zealand and South African rights to HandMade’s The James Gang after seeing only a six-minute promo reel. Slan asserts the sale was not part of a bigger deal, and says there were at least two more companies actively pursuing the same rights.

The sale price was reported to be over $5.6 million, and Paragon – while not confirming the figure – suggests it is in the right ballpark. The budget for The James Gang, which was directed by first-timer Mike Barker and stars Toni Collette (Muriel’s Wedding), is estimated at $3 million. The comedic drama, a HandMade/BBC Films production in association with Revolution Films (Jude), is currently in post in England and there’s presently no Canadian distributor.

Looking ahead, Slan says with or without success in the u.k. National Lottery bid – the outcome of which he says is ‘impossible’ to predict –Paragon is projecting 20% growth a year beginning in the next fiscal year. A win in the lottery would likely infuse up to $8 million in production capital annually, triggering production to the tune of $24 million a year.

In Paragon’s third quarter, Slan says the company met its projections in terms of the bottom line, but the top line was less than last year due to the completion of Forever Knight.

‘Last year we did about $52 million of revenue, and this year we’ll be down into the high $40 million before we gear up again. But on the bottom line we’re expecting to be substantially above 30% growth this year.’

Slan says the addition of Karen Lee Hall (House, Fire) as director of Canadian television development will ensure that Paragon stays at the forefront of the North American broadcasting industry as well as the international theatrical industry.